Francis in the Haunted House

This series should've ended after the exits of Donald O'Connor, Arthur Lubin and Chill Wills.

That's not to say that this is any worse than what that trio created together though; I'd say 'Francis in the Haunted House' is better than 'Francis Goes to West Point', in fact.

Mickey Rooney is actually a fairly decent replacement for O'Connor, though it never feels right that the other geezer isn't involved; it's his lead spot, for better or worse. No-one else on the cast sticks out - if I had to pick one: James Flavin.

Finally, six follow-ups later: the end of the 'Francis' series. An interesting (?) time capsule, given the amount of sequels, from the early 1950s, but a series that never quite reaches a positive level in my eyes. 'Francis Goes to the Races' is comfortably the best one (relative, as still not good), the rest will be forgotten.

Francis the Talking Mule witnesses a murder and calls bumbling reporter David Prescott (Mickey Rooney). Francis knew David's uncle and only intends to warn him. David can't help but get involved. The police suspects David as he uncovers the secrets of the crime.

I've never heard of this ridiculous franchise. The first six movies has director Arthur Lubin, Donald O'Connor, and the voice of Chill Wills. This became the last one in the series. I'm guessing that the old team disbanded for various reason and the studio tried to reboot it with a star like Rooney. The plot doesn't make much sense. It's not a good origin story and is only a bad Scooby Doo adventure. Having Rooney talk to a mule seems to be a fun concept and there is some merit in that. Heck, Mr. Ed had a successful run on TV a few years after this. Sadly, not much of this movie works.

I have to be truthful, I was really done with this series after the first four Francis movies. I skipped the fifth an sixth to watch this one. I always admired Rooney, but he really wasn't that good or funny in this movie. I really didn't notice that Willis was not the vioice for Francis until I did some reading. The story line, a killing, a castle, a spirt on a horse, and a group of people trying to steel the inherited money from the person who it belonged to. The plot really wasn't interesting, but it keep me laughing througout. The interrrogation scenes were a real boar, lights and all. David Jension was a supporting actor, otherwise there was no other notable actors. And the lamest partt of this show was others learning that Francis talked. For the most part the first four movies kept me interested, but after a while the surprise on the actors' faces when they learned Frances talked got really old. Mind you this is really a series for the younger kids, say up to age 14. It will kep the kids laughing even in 2022. This wasn't as good as the others in the series, but it was still entertaining. Perhaps changing up the main actor O'connor to Mickey Ronney was a mistake. The series should have ented when Chill Whills and Donald O'Connor decided to walk after the sixth film. Its not the worse film I ever watched.

Mickey Rooney was the first actor considered to play the human sidekick of Francis the talking mule, but the role went instead to his friend Donald O'Connor. Six years and six mule movies later, O'Connor decided to move on to greener pastures, and workhorse Rooney was brought in to close out the series.

This movie -- without O'Connor and without Chill Wills doing the mule's voice -- gets no respect from critics and die-hard "Francis" fans. Admittedly it's not as funny as the early "Francis" films, but Rooney and Paul Frees (as the voice) give it their all, and the movie is perfect for children.

The fact is that the "Francis" series was running out of steam already. Winding it up with another military comedy would have been the coward's way out. This movie is more like a harbinger of the "Scooby-do" cartoons: Cops and robbers and alleged ghosts in a completely non-threatening environment. No adult content to trouble parents.

Could it be better? Yes. But it fills a certain niche very well.

Francis in the Haunted House (1956)

** (out of 4)

The seventh and final film in Universal's "Francis" series was the first to be without Donald O'Connor as he left the series and was replaced by Mickey Rooney. Also new here is that Chill Willis was replaced as Francis' voice and replaced by Paul Frees so this is pretty much a new film that separates itself from the previous six and since they didn't bother with another one I think the quality is easy to see. This time out there's a murder that plagues an old castle and soon David Prescott (Rooney) is the main suspect so Francis must clear him and track down the real killers. I've seen a few of the previous entries and it's easy to say that one really shouldn't expect any type of "quality" when it comes to a Francis movie and this one here is about as good as you could expect. As usual, the majority of the jokes are aimed at children but I'll admit that a couple of them had me laughing but after about twenty-minutes the film really falls apart because the screenplay goes lazy and just delivers the same type of joke over and over and over again. The majority of the 80-minute running time has Rooney being "told" information by Francis and of course when Rooney tells the police who his source is they don't believe him. We then get an unfunny interrogation sequence, which happens at least four or five times and they're never funny. Rooney will get accused of something, talk about the mule and of course everyone thinks he's crazy. This type of humor was normal for the series but if you don't put anything around it you're just beating a dead joke over the head. Rooney isn't too bad in the film as he at least knows to have some fun with the material and he plays opposite the mule quite well. I will say as a fan of Rooney it's a little sad to see him in a flick like this considering some of the classics he made at MGM in the 30s and 40s. The supporting cast includes the likes of Paul Cavanagh, Virginia Welles and David Janssen. The comedy elements really don't work all that well but even more disappointing are the "horror" elements, which are very minor. This is too bad because director Charles Lamont had helped Abbott and Costello in a few of their "Meet the Monster(s)" films.